Abrams On Trek 3, “Star Wars” Openness

With “Into Darkness” about to come out, director J.J. Abrams will soon be making the transition to the “Star Wars” franchise. The question is, will he return for another ‘Trek’ to the stars? He tells Playboy:

“I would say [directing Star Trek 3] it’s a possibility. We’re trying to figure out the next step. But it’s like anything: It all begins with the story.”

He adds that the approach with ‘Wars’ will be quite different to ‘Trek’ for one particular reason:

“The advantage here [with ‘Star Wars’] is that we still have George Lucas with us to go to and ask questions and get his feedback on things, which I certainly will do.

With ‘Star Trek’ it was harder because I wasn’t a Star Trek fan; I didn’t have the same emotional feeling, and I didn’t have Gene Roddenberry to go to. But I came to understand the world of Star Trek, and I appreciated what fans felt and believed about this universe and this franchise.”

Meanwhile, LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy says that the approach taken to the upcoming seventh “Star Wars” episode will be somewhat different to the highly secretive way Abrams currently operates on while his films are in production:

“I think the whole issue of confidentiality is gonna be fascinating as we move into making the movie. If we’re shooting anything outside, it’s almost impossible to not have things end up on the Internet. So my feeling is, you need to embrace that, especially with the fans around something like Star Wars. You need to recognize they’re important to the process and acknowledge there are things you’re gonna want to make sure they get to know. So I think that’s something we’re going to monitor, pay attention to and think differently about.”